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A researcher in China has unveiled his super-maglevloop line that could make future trains go at the speed of up to 1,800 mph. This is a big deal, mind you, because currently the fastest passenger-carrying train, Shanghai Maglev Train, only reaches a high speed of just 268 mph. By using a vacuum tube, the researcher eliminated speed limitations imposed by air resistance on regular maglev trains.

With regular maglevs, more than 83 percent of traction energy is wasted through air resistance at speeds higher than 400kph (250mph). Dr Deng Zigang, associate professor of the Applied Superconductivity Laboratory at Southwest Jiaotong University, developed a tube that lowers air pressure in the running environment to 10 times less than normal. According to Dr Zigang, the ETT (Evacuated Tube Transport) systems might allow HTS Maglev trains to reach speeds of up to 1,800 mph. The technology could be first applied in military and space launch systems.

The next step in Dr Zigang’s research, whose target was achieved in February 2013, was to develop a ring of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev vehicle that can accelerate to a certain speed, 25 km (15 miles) per hour. The vehicle was designed to accelerate to 50 mph (30mph) without passengers. Currently, the limiting factor regarding speed in the small radius of the ring (only 20 feet), but the team is conducting tests on a new system.